It’s been a while since I’ve done any blogging and for that I apologize.
Things have been quite hectic with a whole slew of changes and happenings taking place.
So to get back into the swing of things, I’m just going to re-visit a very important component of low back pain rehabilitation.
Without further ado:
Your buttocks plays a vital role in saving your spine.
If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you’ll recognize that I’ve always touted gluteal activation and motor control exercises as one of the primary methods to get a handle on your low back pain. In physical therapy, exercise along with education, are our most powerful tools for resolving this and many other issues.
Your buttocks plays a vital role in saving your knees too.
So how do you get your butt back in gear?
There are four major activation movements I use in my physiotherapy practice to build better butts.
These are:
1. The clamshell.
2. Standing hip extensions.
3. The squat or sit-to-stand.
You can check out the above along with other important low back pain relieving movement in the exercise video area of my blog.
In this short video clip, the bridge and a few of its variations are demonstrated.
This fantastic physical therapy exercise is great for activating and retraining your glutes and hamstrings. Just keep in mind when first starting with the bridge to focus on squeezing the glutes as the primary mover. Basically, try to keep your hamstrings relaxed as you lift your hips up.
For most people, this is one of the toughest parts of this exercise…hamstrings usually kick in too hard and may cramp.
As well, when executed properly, this movement will teach proper hip extension using a braced core. These are both essential components of preventing, reducing or relieving low back pain.
Those principles are designed to take into consideration the root causes of your low back pain and not just mask the symptoms.
Today, I just want to touch on an activity we do all the time yet take for granted.
Sitting and Standing.
You do this when you wake up in the morning and roll out of bed.
You do this when you use the toilet.
If you eat breakfast, which you should be doing, there’s a good chance you sit then stand from the kitchen table.
If you drive or ride the bus or train to work, you more than likely sit then stand.
At your desk at work, sure enough, you sit and stand. Repeatedly.
Now if you are a low back pain sufferer, I can almost guarantee that you do this incorrectly.
Yes. You do.
I know…It hurts.
Sitting then standing seems like such a simple skill! I mean, after all these years of doing it, you should be a pro right?
Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, there’s a good change you picked up some pretty bad habits and developed a seemingly beneficial relationship with gravity.
I like to call this relationship the “plop”.
Basically, this means you “plop” into you chair without any control; you let gravity do all the work and pull you into the chair.
When’s the last time you thought about how you sit? Or how you stand from sitting?
If you spend a good part of your day sitting, you will end up inhibiting your buttocks, guaranteed.
When the glutes are turned off like that, it impacts how your pelvis functions, it impacts how your hips function and in the end, all of these changes will impact how your spine functions.
All these alterations in function affect the tissues up and down what we call the kinetic chain. This basically allows for a dysfunction in one part of the body to cause, through various compensations, dysfunction in another part of the body.
Think dominoes. You push one over and one by one, they all fall over in a chain reaction.
Now if your glutes don’t work properly, your low back has to pick up the slack.
Little muscles start doing the work of big muscles. Big muscles start doing the work of little muscles.
And some muscles just stop working altogether.
Over the next few days I’ll be outlining some exercises you can add in to your daily routine to get your butt back in gear.
Now that I’ve lightly touched upon postural issues, it’s time to move on to muscular ones.
In the last post, I alluded to the fact that repeated poor postures cause certain muscles to change from their ideal through adaptive changes. I also talked about the pelvis and its relationship to low back pain.
Today and over the next couple days, I’m going to link the two.
At this point, I think it would be wise to take a moment and welcome the brothers glute: Maximus, Medius and Minimus.
Rock Crushing Glutes: Not Dysfunctional
Collectively and colloquially they are known as the “buttocks”. And we’ve all got ‘em.
So how does this tie into relieving your low back pain?
This powerhouse muscle group is almost always dysfunctional in the posteriors of all the non-traumatic, chronic bad backs that I’ve had the pleasure of working on.
Think about this for a moment. People with low back pain have weak butts.
Let’s dig a little bit deeper, shall we?
For most of you out there, what’s the most challenging movement you’ll do in your day?
I’m sure there are a few of your out there who will do some pretty incredible feats in the gym or whatever your training field may be. You may be crazy acrobats or gymnasts or super-athletes.
However, for most of you, as is the case with the majority of the clients I see at the clinic, it will be…drum roll please…
Sitting and Standing (aka The Sit-to-Stand).
You do this when you wake up in the morning and roll out of bed. You do this when you use the toilet. If you eat breakfast, which you should be doing, there’s a good chance you sit then stand from the kitchen table. If you drive or ride the bus or train to work, you more than likely sit then stand. At your desk, sure enough, you sit and stand. Repeatedly. And so on and so forth.
Now if you are a low back pain sufferer, I can almost guarantee that you do this incorrectly.
Yup. You do.
I know. It hurts. Sitting then standing seems like such a simple skill! I mean, after all these years, you should be a pro right?
Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, you picked up some pretty bad habits and developed a beneficial relationship with gravity. It’s called the “plop”. This means you “plop” into you chair without any control.
When’s the last time you thought about how you sit? Or how you stand from sitting?
If you spend a good part of your day sitting, you will end up inhibiting the glutes. When these muscles are turned off like that, it changes how your pelvis functions. It changes how your hips work. Which then changes how your spine functions.
All these alterations in function then affect all the tissues up and down what we call the kinetic chain.
Think dominoes.
Now if your glutes don’t work properly, your low back has to pick up the slack. Little muscles start doing the work of big muscles. Big muscles start doing the work of little muscles. And some muscles just stop working.
In the following clip, a couple squat variations for you to try out are shown.
Before I get any of my clients squatting like in the video, I get them to actually turn their butt muscles back on. Since there isn’t a switch to flip, this does require some effort.
First exercise: The Glute Squeeze.
If you’re sitting, sit up tall and sit on your hands. Now squeeze your butt cheeks. You should feel the muscles tighten on your hands and it should feel like you’re lifting your body up. Do this for 10 reps every chance you get and every time you find yourself sitting.
So that’s your homework for today. Nice and simple. Squeeze your butt. Lots.
Tomorrow, we’ll talk more about those glutes of yours.
